After almost a year of delays, strikes and commuter misery, Southern Rail has been named as the worst train firm in Britain.

The rail network - owned by Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) - joined all other firms in January with a 1.8% hike in ticket prices, but its customer satisfaction has halved from 44% in 2016 to 21% this year after leaving passengers late for work, stranded and out of pocket over dozens of strikes.

A typical commuter pays £4,536 for an annual season ticket between London Victoria and Brighton on the Southern network. This journey should typically last around 55 minutes.

Yet, almost half of passengers, some 46%, said their journey was delayed in the past year, with the company scoring just one star for punctuality as well as reliability, seat availability, frequency and value for money.

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Going on strike

A GTR spokesman acknowledged their performance was "unacceptable" and said they were "working hard" to improve the service.

It has since announced plans to recruit a pool of 200 "trainee" drivers to help improve services, and also received £300million of public funding for "improvement works".

The spokesman said: "This survey inevitably reflects the significant impact of the wholly unjustified industrial action being taken by Aslef and the RMT. We have made comprehensive offers to resolve this."

At the other end of the scale, only 8% of Merseyrail and Translink NI passengers said they were left waiting in the past year - with their passengers happiest over the service they received.

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Latest headlines, January 23

The best performers

At the top of the table, five-star ratings for reliability and frequency helped put Merseyrail into first place with a score of 72%, followed by Virgin Trains West Coast at 69%, which passengers said was a reliable train company.

East Midlands Trains scored 67% in the customer satisfaction survey, with four-star rating for punctuality, reliability and frequency.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said the report showed that Southern were the "absolute worst of a bad bunch when it comes to Britain's rotten, privatised railways".

"The responsibility for the catastrophic mismanagement of this crucial rail operation lies fairly and squarely with the Government and their contractors GTR,'" he added.

She added: "Four in five passengers were satisfied with their train journey in the last independent nationwide survey, which asks more than 10 times as many passengers as Which?, but rail companies know they can improve."